MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS THE SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE VERB “TAKE” AND “BRING” AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (NHỮNG ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA CÁC DIỄN ĐẠT TIẾNG ANH CÓ CHỨA ĐỘNG TỪ ‘TAKE’ VÀ ‘BRING’ TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT) LE THI SOAN DUONG Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Hanoi, 2018 i ii MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS THE SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH EXPRESSION CONTAINING THE VERB “TAKE” AND “BRING” AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (NHỮNG ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA CỤM THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH CÓ CHỨA ĐỘNG TỪ ‘TAKE’ VÀ ‘BRING’ TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT) LE THI SOAN DUONG Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Dr.Pham Thi Tuyet Huong iii Hanoi, 2018 iv CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled Syntactic and semantic features of English expressions containing the verbs “Take” and “Bring” and their Vietnamese equivalents submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2018 Le Thi Soan Duong Approved by SUPERVISOR Dr Pham Thi Tuyet Huong Date: …./04/2018 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the completion of this work, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people I would like to express my deeply thanks to my supervisor, Dr Pham Thi Tuyet Huong, who step by step guides me during my writing thesis Without her assistance, excellent suggestions and detailed critical comments, the work could not have been completed I own her a debt of gratitude that cannot be measured In addition, I am greatly indebted to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Hanoi Open University for their useful lectures, supports, encouragement and for inspiring me the love for English foreign language teaching and doing scientific research Besides, the study could not have been prepared without the support and provision of useful materials from all my colleagues and friends Therefore, their kindness will never be forgotten I would also give my deepest gratitude to my family for their constant support and encouragement during the time I was attending the course and while the work was in progress Finally, although great efforts have been made to complete the thesis I am aware that this study is far from perfect Hence, constructive comments are welcome for more perfection of the thesis vi ABSTRACT The title of my thesis is Syntactic and semantic features of English expressions containing the verbs “Take” and “Bring” and their Vietnamese equivalents The purpose of my study is to describe the syntactic and semantic features of English expressions containing the verbs “Take” and “Bring”, show some similarities and differences between English expressions containing the verb “Take” and “Bring” and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features, and propose the implications for teaching and learning these English expressions at high school To carry out this research, I use descriptive, analytical and contrastive methods The author combines descriptive research method and comparative analysis method, in which survey questionnaires, the comparative method, the statistic method and the analytical method are included Being the result of survey, the author has pointed out the similarities and differences of English expressions containing the verbs “Take” and “Bring” Hopefully, the finding of this study can, to some extent, be suggested as a referential material for Vietnamese students and teachers in studying and teaching expressions vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Adv N Adverb Noun O D.O I.O Object Direct object Indirect object NP PP Noun Phrase Preposition Smb Sth Somebody Something viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table A summary of the Sematic Features of expressions containing the verb “Take” 29 Table A summary of the Sematic Features of expressions containing the verb “Bring” 34 Table 3: Percentages of functions of English expressions containing “Take” and “Bring” and Vietnamese expressions containing “Mang đi” and “Mang đến” 36 Figure 1: The necessity of learning English expressions containing the verbs “Take” and “Bring” and English expressions 41 Figure 2: Students’ difficulties when learning English expressions containing the verbs “Take” and “Bring” and English expressions 42 ix TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi ABSTRACT vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ix Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Design of the study Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of Previous Studies 2.2 Review of Theoretical Background 2.2.1 Theoretical Framework 2.2.1.1 Syntax 2.2.1.2 Semantics 11 2.2.2 Theoretical Background 12 2.2.2.1 Concepts of expression 12 2.2.2.2 Concepts of set expressions 12 2.2.2.3 Types of set expressions 13 2.2.3 The verbs “take” and “bring” in English 16 2.2.4 The verbs “Take” and “Bring” in Vietnamese 17 2.3 Summary 18 Chapter 3: THE SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE VERBS “TAKE” AND “BRING” AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 19 3.1 Syntactic features of english expressions containing the verbs “take” and “bring” 19 Structure C Take + NP + PP (from + noun) Let us consider the following examples: (8)Jonh took the cold meat from the refrigerator, made coffee, and sat down to a lonely meal (Jonh lấy thịt nguội tủ lạnh ra, pha cà phê ngồi xuống ăn mình) (9) Now, with this beautiful chain on his watch, he could take it from pocket in any company (Bây với sợi dây chuyền xinh xắn móc vào đồng hồ chàng, chàng lấy từ túi áo bầu bạn ai.) (10) Then he took a package from hí overcoat pocket and tosesed it in the table (Lúc chàng lấy từ túi áo khốc gói quẳng lên bàn) From the above mentioned examples, Take is seen to be modified by a direct object, which is then followed by a prepositional phrase, often beginning with from This structure can be rendered into Vietnamese as lấy gì…từ nơi Here we can sê that, when this structure is rendered into Vietnamese, particle is added after the final NP As such, the Vietnamese equivalents for Take in this structure would be Lấy + + từ đâu Structure D Take + NP Let us consider the following examples: (11) I am going to take the 4:30 train (Em chuyến tàu lửa bốn rưỡi) (12) Take a look at this, if you wish (Hãy nhìn ơng muốn) (13) The policement twirled his club and took a step or two (Viên cảnh sát quay quay dùi cui vài bước) (14) The burglar took his right arm (Tên trộm nắm lấy cánh tay phải ông ta) Take combines with noun to express an action: to look at something or to step in The meaning of take, actually, depends on the noun following it Besides, take can combine with nouns to express đón, bắt + xe/tàu/thuyền + về/đi as can be found in collocated noun phrases as take a bus, take a train, take a flight, etc 3.1.2 Syntactic Feature of BRING It is generally assumes the the verb BRING involves some sense of physical motion, which can be referred as the transitive correspondents of come Therefore, BRING has come sense of motion, and is often followed by an object which is found in the form of a noun or a noun phrase In some structures, BRING is said to be collocated with direction and movement words, or rather particles like here, there, away, back, etc These adverbs, when rendered into Vietnamese, often take equivalent particles including “ra”, “theo”, “từ”, “vào”, “lên”, which are added after the noun or the noun phrase Traditional grammar often base on formal mark having (preposition or no preposition) to distinguish between direct object and indirect object In other structures, BRING is modified by both a direct and a indirect object recognized in the form of pronuon, a noun or a noun phrase When BRING is a verb of movement, the prepositions “to” and “with” are found common in movement toward the speaker and it implies come here Below are the structures of the verb BRING: Structure A Bring + NP/Object + PP/PO Let us consider the following examples: (15) I’ll bring the tools with me (Ta mang theo đồ nghề) (16) The castrophe came, and she was brought to the Moll as to her home (Sau bố chết, Beebecca bị đưa Môn ăn học) (17) I think I loved you from the first minute that I saw you, when George brought me to your house, to show me the Amelia whom he was engaged to From the examples above, we can find that the Vietnamese equivalents of this structure may include mang + + theo or mang (đến) + cho + or mang + + đến cho In the passive structure that was brought is found, and in this case, the object of bring becomes the subject of the sentence she Besides, we can have other Vietnamese equivalents of BRING such as nhận từ instead of mang đến cho as can be found in (16) Structure B Bring + NP + Adv Look at the example: Mrs Sedly having brought the two lovers together and left them embracing each other with all their might, like a true woman (Quả người đàn bà thực sự, sau cho đôi trẻ gặp nhau, bà Xetle đích thân cho phép thả sức đằm thắm) In (16) the structure Bring + NP + Adverbial is used as an idiomatic expression that expresses the related world Here, a noun phrase is absent after the adverbial which can be together, or back 3.3 Summary We have been so far touched upon the syntactic and semantic features of Expression containing Take and Bring, basing on the theoretical background of some linguists At first, the syntactic features of Expression containing Take and Bring are described with all the possible structures Their collocations with different functional syntactical elements like complement (noun phrase), adjunct (prepositional phrase and non - finite clause) have been already shown up Besides, we can categorize these idioms in three main kinds: parallel structure, comparative structure and metaphorically descriptive structure basing on the mechanism semantic Next, the semantic features of Expression containing Take and Bring are mapped in three properties: symbolic characteristic and semantic fields And finally, the comparative analysis are carried out in terms of syntactic and semantic features between Expression containing Take and Bring point out the similarities and differences between the two languages CHAPTER IV: APPLICATIONS FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS FROM THE USE OF LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS OF EDUCATION 4.1 Survey questionnaires 4.1.1 Subjects Students: The subjects of this survey are the first year non-major students of English in Falculty of Early childhood Education at National College for Education There are 250 students taking part in this survey Most of them are at the age of eighteen In reality, they come from different areas in Vietnam with different level of English proficiency Most of them had never used English expressions before entering the College However, they were all very helpful and were fully encouraged to participate in this survey 4.1.2 Questionnaires Survey questionaire for students (Appendix 2): In attemp to explore the problems encountered by non-major students of English at National College for Education in learning English expressions to suggest ways to improve their ability in speaking English expressions The questionaire for students was consisted of 29 questions The main purpose of questions from to is to seek about the general information about the participants Questions from to tend to identify the students’ perception of learning speaking English idioms Questions from to 29 tend to identify learners’ factor that hinder the students’ participation in speaking English idioms such as: Learning style, Attitudes, Motivation and Language level 4.1.3 Procedure This survey was develped and carried out at National College for Education The subjects of this survey were 250 non-major English students in Faculty of Early Childhood Education who participated during the process of survey Data were collected during the action stage Identifying the problem: In this survey, the problem was perceived as poor use of English idioms in English class It raised the question for the researcher that what are the main causes of this phenomenon? Specifically, what are the difficulities of non-major English students in speaking English idioms? Collecting initial data: The data in this step was collected by using survey questionaire for students (Appendix 2) In detail, survey questionaire for students was administered with 250 first year non-major students of English with aim of finding out their perception of learning speaking English idioms, learning style, attitude and motivation and level of English proficiency Analyzing data and generating hypothesis: After collecting the data, the researcher started forming the hypothesis It should be noted that, the first research question: “what are the difficulities of non-major English students in speaking English idioms?” has been answered Due to the initial data, the use of English idioms in English classroom is strongly affected by their perception of learning speaking English idioms, learning style, attitude and motivation and level of English proficiency Therefore, the hypothesis was formed, which was using speaking activities effectively will enhance students use English idioms in English classroom Showing some suggestions in teaching and learing English idioms: After analyzing the data, some suggestions for teachers and students in teaching and learing English idioms are showed 4.2 Common difficulties made by learners of English when speaking English Expresions 4.2.1 Students’ perception of learning speaking English Expressions The first part was used to explore the students’ attitudes toward speaking English expressions in the classroom According to Appendix A (Question 4) shows that most of students in the survey fully aware of how important English is, that is the reason why 67.5% of the students say speaking English idioms is very important, meanwhile 25% of the students find it important and just 7.5% of them attach a little importance to this skill However, when being asked anout their attitudes toward speaking English idioms in the classroom, students seem to be not possitive Indeed, the result of question – how frequently each student speaks English idioms in the classroom has demonstrated this conclusion According to the survey data, 70% of the students say they never speak English idioms in speaking Class, and 20% is produced by the ones who speaking less than twice times The ratio of learners involving in speaking English idioms or times accounts for 10% of respondents to the survey Apart from specific reason that will be presented later, there are two questions raised to get a deep insight about the barriers that lead to poor participation of students in speaking English idioms As a matter of fact, around 37.5% of the students find their speaking class does not appeal to them, 15% of the learners judge it very interesting, whereas, 30% of the students suggest that their feeling was just a little interesting and the others (17.5%) have no interest in learning speaking English idioms Futhermore, topics that students have to cover are also amain origin In fact, more than half of the students (62.5%) note that they like the given topics The amount of the students who not like these topics very much is 27.5% and there are a small number of the students who like it little (7.5%) and very little (2.5%) From the data collected, the degree of students’ participation is still rather low because a wide range of reasons Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS The following questionnaire aims at figuring out problems encountered by nonmajor students of English at Hanoi University of Industry in speaking English idioms to suggest ways to improve their ability in speaking English idioms Please answer the following questions as honestly as you can Thank you very much for your cooperation! Part 1: Answer the questions below Question Question Question Question Your gender is Answer A Female □ B Male □ How long have you been learning English? A years □ B years □ C 10 years □ D Others ( _ years) □ Your English is A Exellent □ B Good □ C Fair □ D Bad □ You find that speaking English idioms is A very important □ B important □ Question C a little important □ D not important □ On average, in a session, how many times did you participate in speaking English idioms in the lesson? Question Questions A never speak □ B less than twice □ C or times □ D more than times □ You find your speaking class _ A very interesting □ B interesting □ C a little interesting □ D not intersting □ How much you like the topics given in Speaking term 1? A very much □ B much □ C not very much □ D little □ E very little □ Part 2: To what extent you agree with each of the following statements Please indicate your answer using the following five-point scale where: = Strongly agree = Agree = Neither agree nor disagree = Disagree Question = Extremely disagree I only like speaking English expressions with friends □ next to me or at the same table with me Question I like using English expressions to discuss about the □ topics I have already prepared at home Question 10 I only like speaking English expressions when □ appointed by the teacher Question 11 In the class, I only speak Engkish expressions when □ the teacher asks and I answer Question 12 I like speaking English expressions through speaking □ activities Question13 I just practice speaking English expressions at home □ Question 14 I speak English expressions whenever and wherever is possible □ Question 15 I really enjoy speaking English expressions in the classroom □ Question 16 In the classroom, I often take every opportunity to speak English expressions □ Questions 17 In the classroom, I often feel stress and nervous when the teacher asks me to speak English expressions □ Question 18 It’s important to me to speak English expressions better than other students in my class □ Question 19 In the classroom, I prefer listening to others speaking to speaking it my self □ Question 20 Speaking English expressions well is important because it is useful for my career □ Question 21 I like to practice in speaking expressions activities because it helps me to get good marks □ Question 22 I would be very proud of myself if I could speak English expressions well □ Question 23 I think I can’t learn English expressions well without speaking □ Question 24 I am not afraid of making mistakes while I am speaking English expressions □ Question 25 I like speaking English expressions in the class but I not know what to say □ Questions 26 I like using English expressions to discuss about the topics that I have already prepared at home □ Questions 27 I find the topics difficult and I have nothing to say □ Question 28 I am afraid of my pronunciation □ Question 29 I not have enough vocabularies to discuss the topics with my friends □ CHAPTER CONCLUSION 5.1 Recapitulation The study is to conduct an investigation into the syntactic and semantic features of English expressionscontaining the verb ‘keep’with the reference to Vietnamese equivalents In order to achieve this target efficiently, a number of theoretical backgrounds are presented to support the study There are also implications for teaching English expressions By answering all three questions, the author hopes that the findings will be a practical and useful material for learners of English in general and the freshman Hanoi University of Industry in particular can understand and use these idioms properly and effectively in reality 5.2 Concluding remarks The study has revealed the following results: Syntactically, a lot of English expressions have been chosen to investigate They can be categorized into four main patterns: SV, SVO, SVOO, SVOC.They are phrasal verbs, verb phrases and adjective phrases, idioms and proverbs Semantically, it is clear that the semantic opacity is one of the most characteristic features of Expression containing Take and Bring The cultural uniqueness of eachlanguage is usually considered reflecting through the semantic features These turn out to be the most significant part of the thesis Obviously, Expression containing Take and Bring acquire a very high symbolic characteristic through the use of metaphor, metonymy and hyperbole Noticeably, there are cases in which some metaphors and metonymy are international and can be shared among countries 5.3 Limitation of the study The study has investigated Expression containing Take and Bring in terms of its semantic and syntactic features Besides, there is possibly shortage of expression in the process of collecting data This may result in some mistakes in the study There is no denying that this paper cannot cover all constructions and meanings of Expression containing Take and Bring and the other equivalents under discussion, which may lie in the limitation of time and reference materials, as well as the constraints faced by the researcher 5.4 Suggestions for further studies Through the time of carrying out the study, there are also some proposals for next studies which are Expression containing Take and Bring and other equivalents meaning in Vietnamese For these reasons, further studies should go into more details of meanings expressed by other verbs in such as take, make,own, lack, need, etc or the verb “take” and “bring” in specialstructures of proverbs REFERENCES English: Alan Cruse (2006) Glossary of Semantics and Pragmatics Edinburgh University Press Birkerton, L (1992) Language and Species University of Chicago Press Chomsky, N (2002) Syntactic Structures Walter de Gruyter Collins (1957) A Book of English Idioms London: M/s Longman & Co Cowie, A P et al (1994) Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms Oxford University Press Cruise, D A (1987) Lexical Semantic Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Davidson, D (1973) Semantics of Natural Languages New York: Springer Levin, B (1991) Lexical and Conceptual Semantics Cambrigde: Cambrigde University Press Palmer F.R (1990) Semantics Cambrigde: Cambrigde University Press 10 Strasler, J (1976) Idiom Structures in English London 11 Wehmeier, S (2005) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Oxford: Oxford University Press VIETNAMESE AUTHORS: 12 Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981) Từ vựng - Ngữ nghĩa Tiếng Việt Hà Nội: NXB Giáo Dục 13 Nguyễn Văn Long (2001) Semantic Features of English and Vietnamese Idiomatic Verb Phrases, MA Thesis Đại học Vinh DICTIONARIES 15.Advanced English Dictionary, 1995 Oxford University Press 16.Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2001 Longman House 17.Oxford English Grammar, 1983London: Oxford University Press 18.Oxford English Dictionary,1995 Oxford University Press ... perfection of the thesis vi ABSTRACT The title of my thesis is Syntactic and semantic features of English expressions containing the verbs “Take” and “Bring” and their Vietnamese equivalents The purpose... English expressions containing the verbs “Take” and “Bring” 3.1 SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE VERBS “TAKE” AND “BRING” 3.1.1 Syntactic Features of English expressions containing. .. “BRING” AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS This chapter deals with the syntactic and semantic features of two English expressions containing the verb “Take” and “Bring” and their Vietnamese equivalents